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The Dark Shadow Cast by the Golden Rule
Most societies seem to have some version of the Golden Rule. That only makes sense. It would be hard to live amongst one’s fellow humans without one. I really do try to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I can’t imagine functioning any other way. The thing I struggle with…
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Self-Abuse
True confessions: When I’m angry, frustrated, upset, or feeling helpless, I either eat or spend money or both. I don’t need to be hungry or in need of something. I just do it. I know this about myself. I know it even as it’s happening. But I can’t seem to stop. (What a First World…
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Spring is in the Air
I’ve been feeling restless of late. I want to get out and explore. I want to go places and do things. I want to have some fun. I want to go zip lining! I want my life to begin again. The problem is, the weather is still crap. Sometimes I think if I don’t see…
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Bitterness
The other night we had a wind storm. At 3 a.m. it ripped open my screen door. Bang! This, naturally, caused my dog to go ballistic, and his hysterical tirade prevented me from going back to sleep right away. It also woke me up right in the middle of REM sleep, which caused me to…
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Structure
An interesting conversation with my friend Amy recently made me realize that there seem to be two types of people in this world: Those who thrive on structure and those who chafe when forced to be structured. I fall firmly in the former camp. I like planning things. I flourish with boundaries. If I don’t…
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Spiritual Purging
Apologies in advance if you’re reading this over breakfast, but have you ever felt so sick to your stomach that you just knew that the only way you were going to feel better was if you threw up and got it over with? Sometimes that toxic, acrid, roiling source of your misery just has to…
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The Need to Scream
Since being included in the book Callings, I now sort of feel as though I’m being looked upon as the poster child for job satisfaction. And 99 percent of the time, it’s true, I am completely in love with what I do. That just makes the 1 percent rankle all the more. And today is…
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How People Become Radicalized
Nothing makes me feel more bitter and cynical than feeling that I’m being treated unfairly. My mother would say, “Life isn’t fair.” Yeah, ma, I know. But that doesn’t give people a free pass to take advantage of that atmosphere and pile on. You still have the moral, ethical, and often legal obligation to do…
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Flirting
I used to like to say that I couldn’t get through the day without at least one good flirtation. I’ve had to scale that back considerably in the past year, because now that I’ve moved to Seattle without knowing a soul, the vast majority of my human contact is with coworkers. Flirting with coworkers is…
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When Things Go Wrong
When your job requires that you open and close a drawbridge and something happens that causes it to malfunction, that’s a bad day. That’s a stressful, paperwork-generating, workmen-crawling-all-over-your-territory type of day. I don’t like those days. I’m having one of those days. But really, since I didn’t do anything to break one of the most…